868-BACK

Simply amazing. A worthy successor to 868-HACK, that does not only expand the concept but adds so many fresh ideas on top of it, it's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane. Main gameplay is the same push-your-luck risk-vs-reward management that made HACK great. Most of the time, you are only getting overwhelmed by enemies, because you got too greedy. But what previously was the main game in HACK is now a single level (or server) of a run. Every server nets you a new upgrade (called a device) which you will have available in all future servers, however they are not always active, but instead in every server you will be able to connect one of your available devices in each of the 8 sectors you need to go through. Meaning you need to strategize in which order you will need to connect them each time. All the servers are laid out in a grid map, which is slowly revealed as you hack server after server, and it very clearly shows you what the device you are being rewarded with is gonna be as well as what special modifiers that server will have, letting you plan your route very deliberately. Data in HACK was for score only but BACK adds a few more uses for it, like the powerful clear prog or actually making it so that collecting enough data will reveal info about adjacent servers, encouraging you to go for data even if you are not playing for high-score. And the scrip stack is so cool. You collect abilities (called progs) in each server, which you use to help yourself survive. But once your 8 slots are full, any additional progs you pick up are converted to scrip and put on your scrip stack. A scrip is essentially a single-use-item version of that prog and they transfer over to your next server. So collecting a stack of strong scrip is essential to mastering the game. There's just so many crazy things in this game, I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff (and some is best left to explore for yourself). There is a braincube that if you manage to assemble it will grant you a wish. There is a device called lanparty that allows you to hack two servers simultaneously. Some servers belong to corporations which want to own the world which have especially nasty tricks up their sleeves that can e.g. destroy your devices or remove servers from your map. There is a password you are trying to brute-force while playing. There are just so many systems at play here and they all work so well together to create a really fantastic mesh of possibilities. This is one of the all-time greats already.

This is a game about being surrounded by beehives, given a pile of rocks, and being warned about the consequences of hitting the beehives with the rocks, and then daring you to do it anyway. Best modern interpretation of cyberpunk AND best modern roguelike.

Really fun and and interesting idea for a game and i must say i'm having quite a lot of fun with it.

I've been looking for a game like this. It has almost no fluff in its adherence to its core loop. The strategic choices always culminate in puzzle solving and your job is to figure out which set of puzzles you can solve while balancing score (hell yeah arcade) and survival. RNG will haunt you at every step of the way so this process never becomes static. The tactical aspect is scratching a different itch. There's only 5 enemy types with their own quirks and behaviour but your options and power are similarly scaled such that defeat could always be around the corner. The game is brutal about throwing wrenches at your well engineered game plans and radically altering game conditions (a lot of this can and should be mitigated in the strategic layer and that requires its own set of skills). Due to all this, a refreshing sense of tension permeates every run. Aesthetics and UI are unusually refined and integrated in the gameplay loop. I was not surprised to learn that this developer has a small but dedicated fanbase, almost like a cult and I can see the vision. I'd love for this game to reach a wider audience but you can tell the developer creates for art's sake and I admire that. 10000 legacy run one day maybe????

This is impossibly difficult but I just cant stop from trying one more time. Very addictive.

Michael Brough's roguelikes strip the genre down to the turn-based tactical core, and 868-Hack was among the heights of this approach. I'm only a handful of hours in to 868-Back, but I can see there are great depths ahead.

This is Not My Genre, but I love the game; every sector feels super tight, and the metagame is just complex enough to encourage returning for more action.

Gameplay ultra rafraichissant pour le genre hyper saturé qu'est le roguelike. Très très dur, mais très très bon.